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Tuesday, October 30, 2012

LA Rock’n’Roll Halloween Half Marathon

I was super excited for this race! In fact, I had been so
excited, that I had signed up for it almost nine months ahead of time with a
couple of my girl friends. Unfortunately, they had to cancel, but I still went
to rock it solo. My awesome Dad volunteered to tag along and he cheered me on
at several places along the course.

This was my first Rock’n’Roll marathon event. I’ve heard the
horror stories of the past and I’ve also heard the rockin’ stories, so I had
mixed emotions going into this one. To start, the Expo was amazing! There were
a ton of vendors, lot’s a free stuff and an overall fun atmosphere. I was very
impressed. The event shirt turned out to be really cool and bib pickup was
really easy.

The Expo

Rock'n batgirl!

I booked a hotel half a mile from Staples Center where the
race both started and finished. It was very convenient and saved me a ton on
parking. I decided to go as batgirl thanks to my cousin allowing me to borrow
both her batman t-shirt and cape (thanks Kristen)! I found some cool sunglasses
at Target that I thought would work great and they really did.

Even before the sun was up the morning of the race, it was
already on the warm side. I don’t run well in heat (I’ve lived in Santa Barbara
all my life), so I was a little nervous. The black outfit probably didn’t help
in that department at all either.

The start of the race was very pleasant. Daddio hung out
till I crossed the start, he kept reminding me to take it easy, to not push
myself too hard. He knows how I can be when I’m flying solo. I started off
doing intervals of eight minutes running and two minutes walking. I felt two
was a little too much walking, but with the San Antonio half in two weeks, I
was trying to be good.

Party time!

Around mile three we went under the big blowup Rock’n’Roll
balloon and ran around the LA Memorial Coliseum, this was the turn around point
for this end of the race. We then headed back to the Staples Center, where I
got to run with a group of people dressed as Elvis who were pushing a stroller
with a boom box that was pounding out Elvis music. I stuck pretty close to them
for a few miles and turned off my own music to rock out to some Elvis.

Around mile six, Daddio gave me a shout and I gave him a big
wave and a smile. A couple blocks later, I ran into Coach Steve from
SoCalRunning.com. I was pretty excited to get to meet him. I’ve been following
his YouTube videos for a few months now (MarathonTrainingTV), so my inner fangirl
came out. He was really nice! We ran through the tunnel together and he gave me
some advice about chi running. If you don’t watch his videos, you should check
them out.

Coach Steve!

From there, the course goes about another two miles out,
turning back around after going up and across the 6th street bridge.
From the tunnel to the bridge, it felt like we had been going uphill and the
heat was starting to turn up. There was an awesome view of the skyline at the
turn around point, which was a two edged sword. It was a beautiful view, but
also showed just how far back the finish line was. I started getting really hot
running the bridge since there wasn’t any shade and my pace started to slow
down.

Coming up on the bridge

Nice view!

The tunnel

At mile eleven, I felt like I was hitting the wall, but kept
pushing myself forward. My intervals got shorter, but I was still chugging
along. About half a mile out from the finish, I could see the finish line. I
started running a little more consistently. There was a cheer squad of little
girls all dressed up and I ran over to give them high fives and twisted my
ankle hard on a manhole (stupid rookie mistake). Thankfully, other than the
initial shock and embarrassment, the pain didn’t hit till later.

I sped up, gave my Dad a high five near the finish line and
finished strong, feeling more drained than I have the last few times I’ve
raced. I really don’t do well in heat!

After finishing, I received my medal, felt like a celebrity
with all the pictures being taken and had bottles of water, gatorade, chocolate
milk and even a smoothie pushed into my hands. There were oranges, bananas and
Snickers protein bars that are really, really good. There was an after party,
with a beer garden, but we didn’t stick around too long.

Bling!

Overall, a very enjoyable race! I had a wonderful time and
would definitely recommend it to those in the future. There were a lot of water
stations, all well equipped. I carried my own water, due to stories of past
Rock’n’Roll events having problems with their water, but I was drinking it in
the end due to the heat and I don’t think there was any problems with it at
this race. There was one GU station near the end, but as far as I saw, that was
the only fuel station. Like usual, I carried my own stuff. This time I fueled
with a GU mixed into my little water bottle, a pack of the sports beans and two
Clif shot blok squares.

My one complaint was the corrals. I was in corral eleven,
which seemed further back than I expected and for the first few miles or so,
spent a lot of time trying to weave around walkers and slower runners even
though I was running slower than predicted nine months ago. I’m not sure how
they determined the coral assignments, but it didn’t seem very accurate and
with the beginning of the race being so crowded, they might want to rethink
their process next year.

Definitely look into this race if you are looking for a fun
event with a Halloween twist and don’t forget to dress up! It was like 13.1
miles of Halloween Rock’n’Roll partying!